Should The Headphone Jack Be Dropped In Future Phones?

The trend of dropping the headphone jack started when Apple decided to make the iPhone more thinner. The first major devices were the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus which did not come with the headphone jack. Instead, Apple provided a dongle for lightning to 3.5 mm jack in the box itself.

Every design trend has to be copied by other smartphone makers, whether it was the headphone jack or the display notch. Pretty soon, we saw the likes of Huawei, HTC, Motorola and more brands doing away with the jack. Most of the smartphone makers give dongles to connect your headphone via the USB Type-C port or the lightning port in case of iPhones. However, this gives you a handicap of having to carry the dongle everywhere and also not able to listen to music while charging your device.

Quality

Then there is also the issue of audio quality. Many users have switched to a wireless earphones and the main problem is that no matter how good the Bluetooth quality is, it will never match up to the audio on good wired earphones. Obviously, there are several audio drivers for lossless audio streaming such as Qualcomm’s aptX which give near 24-bit audio as you would get on a good wired headset. But audiophiles will disagree.

However, for most, this won’t matter as not everyone is an audiophile. Dropping the headphone jack does have its problems and the main argument that manufacturers give is that they do it to make the phone slimmer. But there are several phones that have managed to create a slim profile with the headphone jack included.

Is it time?

It is time to accept the fact that the jack era has come to an end. So what now? Although wireless earphones are convenient, they come with their fair share of problems, the biggest being that we have to constantly charge them. Even so, people have come to accept them as a more effective alternative to dongles. Losing a dongle means that you can’t connect your earphones to your phone, which is not the case with Bluetooth earphones.

In many people’s opinion, the headphone jack should not be dropped but it seems that is the way smartphone makers are going. We just have to live with the compromises now as even Samsung and LG have hinted that they will bid adieu to the headphone jack in 2019. The future is wireless and everyone has to get on board the wireless experience or the dongle life, whichever floats your boat.